The Rise and Fall of Zynga's Gaming Empire

After years of rapid growth, Zynga's user count has recently fallen off a cliff. By the end of June 2013, the company had 187 million monthly active users, down from 306 million a year ago. Meanwhile Zynga's daily active users almost halved from 72 million in June 2012 to 39 million in June 2013.

Zynga's revenue subsequently declined as well. After revenue growth had come to a halt by the end of 2012, the first two quarters of 2013 were marked by steep declines. The company has yet to find a way to revitalize its faltering business. The ongoing shift to mobile Facebook usage has hit the company harder than predicted and the long-rumoured move into real money gambling won't be happening after all. CEO Don Mattrick recently said his company needed to get "back to basics" instead, which probably means focusing on the kind of social games that made the company famous in the first place.

After Zynga had yet again published disappointing results last Thursday, the company's stock priced dropped 14 percent the next day. Since its IPO in December 2011, the company now lost 70 percent of its market value and it remains highly doubtful if the company can ever get back to where it was around the time of its IPO.